Starring: Gina Rodriguez (“The Bold and the Beautiful”), Justin Baldoni (“Everwood”), Brett Dier (“Ravenswood”), Andrea Navedo (“How to Make It in America”), Yael Grobglas (“Reign”), Ivonne Coll (“Teen Wolf”) and Jaime Camil (“Devious Maids”)
Genre: One-hour comedy
Premiere Date: Monday, October 13, 9 p.m., The CW
Direct Competition: “Scorpion” (CBS), “The Voice” (NBC), “Sleepy Hollow” (Fox), “Dancing with the Stars” (ABC)
Premise (in 140 characters or less): This American telenovela tells the tale of Jane, a twenty-something who finds out that she’s been artificially inseminated by mistake.
Initial Reaction: And the award for new fall program I wouldn’t have expected to include in my top five goes to… “Jane the Virgin!”
Conclusion: Every so often, a show comes along with an asinine premise, and yet, still manages to be wildly entertaining. A few years ago, it was “Revenge.” Last year, it was “Sleepy Hollow.” This year, that honor goes to “Jane the Virgin,” perhaps the first CW show I’ll ever watch. It should be noted that the show wouldn’t work without the presence of an omniscient narrator. The narration helps not only to move the story along at a pace that feels comfortable, but also to reinforce the fact that “Jane” is, above all else, the perfect parody of a format that has helped Univision thrive against America’s top English-speaking broadcast networks.
Despite its ludicrous premise and cringeworthy title, “Jane” is both funny and charming, and has a breakout star in Gina Rodriguez. Like “Red Band Society,” I imagine it’d be easy to cut the show loose if its writers can’t manage to capture the magic of the pilot in subsequent episodes, but I’m willing to hang on for awhile and hope the show continues firing on all cylinders.
Watch Live, DVR or Skip?: DVR this one, and expect to be surprised.
